Optical quantum super-resolution imaging and hypothesis testing

Ugo Zanforlin (), Cosmo Lupo, Peter W. R. Connolly, Pieter Kok, Gerald S. Buller and Zixin Huang ()
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Ugo Zanforlin: Heriot-Watt University
Cosmo Lupo: Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Politecnico di Bari
Peter W. R. Connolly: Heriot-Watt University
Pieter Kok: The University of Sheffield
Gerald S. Buller: Heriot-Watt University
Zixin Huang: Macquarie University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Estimating the angular separation between two incoherent thermal sources is a challenging task for direct imaging, especially at lengths within the diffraction limit. Moreover, detecting the presence of multiple sources of different brightness is an even more severe challenge. We experimentally demonstrate two tasks for super-resolution imaging based on hypothesis testing and quantum metrology techniques. We can significantly reduce the error probability for detecting a weak secondary source, even for small separations. We reduce the experimental complexity to a simple interferometer: we show (1) our set-up is optimal for the state discrimination task, and (2) if the two sources are equally bright, then this measurement can super-resolve their angular separation. Using a collection baseline of 5.3 mm, we resolve the angular separation of two sources placed 15 μm apart at a distance of 1.0 m with a 1.7% accuracy - an almost 3-orders-of-magnitude improvement over shot-noise limited direct imaging.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32977-8

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